The Heartbleed Bug – Maybe Time to Update Your Passwords

As you have probably heard, there is a very prevalent hole in the security of many secured websites (the ones that say https:) called The Heart Bleed Bug. The Heart Bleed Bug posed a huge threat because it could steal information that was protected by SSL/TLS encryptions. More information on the details of the virus can be found on the Heart Bleed website. If you were affected you probably received an email from the affected company explaining the impact and telling to change your password. You want to make sure the bug is fixed on a site before you change your password or you may still be at risk. Here is a list of common sites, whether they were affected, and if they have fixed the bug and it is safe to change your password.

While you are changing passwords, now is a great time to look at best practices for passwords and tools to make managing them easier.

Most of us without knowing it are making mistakes when it comes to security online. The easiest one is saving of passwords to browsers. It is so easy to just save your password to Facebook so all you have to do is go to the website and you are ready to stalk your friends. However, This practice is dangerous since the browser either does not encrypt the passwords or the encryption is stored right next to the password making it far too easy to decipher. An easy way to fix this but still have benefit of not having to type your password every time is using a password vault such as Lastpass and Apple’s iCloud Keychain.

These programs take your security to the next level in a couple different ways. The first is all your passwords are different! They require that you log into the program with one password then it creates different passwords for all your saved sites. This is great for you since now all you have to do is remember one password (which most of us already do) and you don’t have to add weird variations (password1, Password1*, passWord11**, etc.). Another great thing about Lastpass and iCloud Keychain is that it secures all your data because it creates strong and unique passwords that you don’t have to remember.

Complex, unique passwords for each site and you don’t even have to remember them! Makes it so much easier to be secure on the Internet.